At FWD50, we know that experimentation is key to growth and innovation. At last year’s conference, attendees told us they wanted a chance to network and discuss hot topics and specific domains. So in partnership with BlackBerry we created an entirely new, participant-driven format called Circlesquare.

We surveyed people to find the critical technologies and departments. And we chose these to create four concurrent half-hour discussions, four times over. It’s a choreographed dance of experts, ideas, and disruption.

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TECHNOLOGY CORNERS

AI and data science

SPONSORED BY BLACKBERRY, IBM, MICROSOFT

Training algorithms on data, then using them to make predictions and classifications, sometimes better than humans can—with possible ethical consequences.

Mobility, IOT, and sensors

SPONSORED BY BLACKBERRY, ORACLE

Using the Internet of Things (or Enterprise of Things) to create a mesh of ubiquitous computing that can assimilate, process, and act on information at scale. Often related to telecommunications advances such as 5G and IPV6.

Blockchain and distributed ledgers

SPONSORED BY BLACKBERRY, IBM

Rather than central records that can be modified and depend on trust, distributed ledgers allow many parties to create immutable records everyone can verify, allowing fundamentally new kinds of arms-length cooperation and service models.

Digital identity

SPONSORED BY BLACKBERRY

While you can authenticate with Twitter, Facebook, or Google, you can’t authenticate with the Government of Canada. Even Canada Post relies on Equifax to prove someone’s identity. And yet identity is the lynchpin of service delivery. Digital identity means proving you are who you claim to be, and then attaching the right permissions to you as a result.

DOMAIN SLICES

Transportation

Whether by road, air, boat, or even emerging technologies such as Hyperloop or drone, transportation is a critical function of government. But in an era of self-driving cars, electric engines, ridesharing, and more, it’s in upheaval.

Procurement and service delivery

Governments are massive buyers, and they need to balance fast, simple procurement with protections against corruption and demands for intense scrutiny and transparency. And they have to deliver services they build across all citizens—despite a checkered past with budget overruns and project failures.

Policing, defence, and justice

Managing secure borders while maintaining the rights of citizens is at the forefront of today’s news. And from public surveillance, to digital chain of evidence, to the right to privacy, being truly just is a hotly debated topic.

Healthcare and precision medicine

Most developed nations run a public healthcare model that has to deal with an aging population, and demands for new treatments spurred by faster, more readily available diagnostic tools. Can technology help?

Nadia Diakun-Thibault (she/her)

Senior Aviation Security Policy Advisor, Transport Canada

Sessions

Circlesquare